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Proposal:General requirements in matter of knowledges representation

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This page is dedicated to requirements analysis of knowledges representation in the wiki systems.

Translated from French version (Proposal:General requirements in matter of knowledges representation/fr).

Technological constraints

a) The system must be usable in all the wiki systems (Wikipedia, Wiktionary,…).

Consequences:

  • It requires a correct integration into the current MediaWiki technological solution and particularly with its extension dedicated to semantics: Semantic MediaWiki.

b) It must use known languages, ontologies and semantic tools for which there exists a vast choice of open library under licenses compatible with MediaWiki.

User constraints

a) Semantic enrichment should not weigh down the functionalities already present and thus discourage possible, or worse, current contributors.

Consequences:

  • Direct semantic enrichment of the text of the articles is to be excluded. Indeed, already, in spite of the efforts of syntactic simplification, the markup language used for text layout and reference discourages several of them.

b) Semantic enrichment must be promoted but also motivating for the end users (writers and readers). If not, it will never be carried out satisfactorily.

Consequences:

  • The user interface for the semantic enrichment must be inviting and simple.
  • Semantic enrichment must generate capital gain with article; the participant must have the utility feeling by seeing a direct benefit and, especially not, a complex logico-semantic abstraction.

c) For the experts, it is necessary to offer a rich capacity of semantic enrichment allowing them, ideally, to formalize all knowledges of the article, the most precisely and simply as possible.

Consequences:

  • The deep semantic layer must have this powerful semantic expression capability (powerful language).
  • The language must be simple and/or provide convivial tools.

Constraints connected to Wiki philosophy

a) Semantic enrichment should function according to the same philosophical principles as the remainder of the system.

Consequences:

  • The system should benefit of the usual capacities of versions management (history), discussion and edition.

b) The system must manage the structural conflict.

  • Needs of disambiguated and stable knowledge structures (fundamental requirement for all ontology and knowledge bases).

VERSUS

  • Need of knowledge structures respecting wiki philosophy (variable ambiguity according to the authors and unstable by nature).

Consequences:

  • Impossibility of the use of self-referencing for the semantic clarification. Thus require an external lexical ontology, complete, stable, compatible with the WikiMedia license and multilingual.

Constraints of coordination and maintenance

a) The system should offer the possibility of the creation of semantic enrichment template in order to coordinate this activity.

b) The system should require the least possible of self-referencing so as to avoid the maintenance of the broken links.

c) Semantic enrichment should be independent of the language. Ideally, semantic enrichment of the same article in various languages should be shared.

Interoperability constraints

a) The system should offer a simple interface with external client-side applications like integrated applets into the article. Thus offer a development framework to promote client-side development.

Constraints of extended semantic expressions

a) The system should make it possible to also represent space knowledge as the shape of the objects and the spatial relations between the various parts.

Consequences :

  • Integrate a 3D objects modelization tools or at least a 3D object modeling language.
  • Allow the integration of visual informations like in visual dictionaries.

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